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For Immediate Release
Contact: Dave Densmore, denswood@aol.com / 214-244-0008, mobile

 

TORRENCE GAINS GROUND ON LEADERS
After Qualifying No. 4, Capco Driver Out In Round Two

April 12 2015 -- Steve Torrence continued to impress with his consistency behind the wheel of the Capco Contractors Top Fuel dragster but after losing Sunday in the second round of the 16th annual SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the Texan admitted that he’s getting a little tired of moral victories.

            “It’s hard to win one of these things,” said the 31-year-old cancer survivor.  “Last year, I had the best car I’ve ever had – and the best season, but we didn’t win a race.  We were good enough to win but we didn’t get it done.  That’s how tough it is out there.  You need a fast race car and a great crew and a driver who’s on the lights and even after all that, you gotta have a little luck.”

            Torrence didn’t have any again Sunday. 

            After earning his first qualifying bonus points of the new season and locking up the No. 4 starting spot and after watching point leaders Antron Brown and Tony Schumacher lose in the first round, the four-time tour winner was ousted in the second by 2014 Rookie-of-the-Year Richie Crampton who, to rub salt in the wound, went on to beat Larry Dixon for the money.

            After stopping the 1,000 foot timers in 3.829, 3.783, 3.892 and 3.870 seconds during qualifying (among the four quickest times in each session), he laid down a solid 3.837 at 320.81 miles per hour in a first round conquest of Terry McMillen.  Against Crampton, though, a 10,000 horsepower engine that had performed flawlessly misfired at about 600 feet, sending Torrence to the finish line on seven cylinders and slowing him to 3.899 at only 301.81 mph.

            Still, despite the disappointment, Torrence was pleased that he earned qualifying points in three of the four sessions (picking up a total of five bonus points) and that he gained another position in the race for the Mello Yello Championship, moving from seventh to sixth.

            He hopes to continue that climb in two weeks when the pro tour makes its first stop in his home state with the 28th annual O’Reilly Spring Nationals at Royal Purple Raceway outside Houston.

            “”We’ll have a lot of support in Houston,” he said.  “We’re going back to a track where we qualified No. 1 last year so we feel good about where things are going.  We’ve got our consistency and our confidence back.”

            His win over McMillen in the first round was the 99th round win of his career.  He’ll try to go “well past” 200 when the pros reconvene in Houston April 24-26.

 

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